3-008-597 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: "The Expulsion of the Duke of Athens", by Stefano Ussi, 1862. Engraving of a painting. 'The period represented is that when most of the republican cities had already successively fallen under military chiefs from civil exhaustion consequent upon the incessant wars of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, the Papal and Imperial parties...The representatives of the great sections of the Florentine people have broken into a room apparently of the Palazzo Vecchio. The military chiefs are on the right; the senators, churchmen, and heads of great families on the left. The banners of the populace are seen waving in the street. The dogged look of the tyrant and the craven, sidelong glance of his confidant are very suggestively given. A partisan of the Duke and a youth, perhaps his son, are being ejected on the left...The tumultuousness of the scene is given with perfect appropriateness of action, expression, and composition, yet without any exaggeration. The colour is rich without gaudiness, the tone mellow without heaviness, and the drawing and execution throughout masterly...we wish we could see more of the noble deeds in our own history so worthily represented'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.